The enigma (Juan Carlos Girauta in El Debate)

Juan Carlos Girauta argues in El Debate that Óscar Puente's continued presence at the Ministry of Transport is an electoral drag for the PSOE and that Sánchez should dismiss him to limit the damage. The article offers no data of its own: it is an opinion column published on 2 November 2026.

On 2 November 2026, **Juan Carlos Girauta** published a column in **El Debate** titled «The enigma» in which he asks why the Prime Minister, **Pedro Sánchez**, keeps **Óscar Puente** at the head of the Ministry of Transport when, in his view, his continued presence only piles up wear and tear for the PSOE ahead of the elections.

## What the article actually claims

Girauta does not claim that a dismissal would change the electoral outcome. He writes, literally, that he is not saying that sacking Puente «would work (or will work) miracles». What he argues is the opposite: the punishment for the Government will be greater if it keeps him in the Cabinet until the vote than if it removes him beforehand.

The reasoning is damage control. Any competent analysis, he maintains, would recommend a «political decapitation» so that the president's circle has something to hold on to: a gesture, a decision, a way of manufacturing some urgent merit. The article acknowledges that the losses would still be immense in electoral terms.

## The diagnosis of the PSOE's inner circle

The column devotes its most acid part to the commentators and pundits close to the Government. Girauta describes them as calculating whether they still have room to distance themselves before the elections and sensing a catastrophe of dimensions he compares to those of the **PP** in 1996. It is opinion, not data: there are no figures or polls in the text.

The article also offers no data on the minister's management. It merely describes him harshly and points out that he carries a incivil horizon, without specifying facts or proceedings. That claim is the columnist's opinion and is not accompanied by any court ruling in the text.

## The blackball metaphor

To explain why Puente contaminates the rest, Girauta turns to the balloting procedures of fraternal societies such as the **Odd Fellows**: a single black ball in the bag is enough to be excluded. The whole troop, he writes, carries theirs. The minister would be the unsalvageable one, the one who mixes negligence and harassment from power.

He closes with an image: Puente and his sister could walk out now hand in hand, like the twins in *The Shining*. And an ironic caveat: maybe Sánchez will fire him today. The text was published on **2 November 2026** and no dismissal is recorded in it.

## What can be concluded

The column is an opinion piece, not a data-driven analysis. Its thesis is that keeping Puente costs more than dismissing him, and its prediction is that the wear and tear will continue until the elections. Anyone looking for management figures, polls or case files will not find them here: the value of the text lies in the political argument, not in the evidence.